The problems relative to injury to children when unrestrained in motor vehicles, particularly during rapid deceleration and/or crash conditions is well known. With adults, the safety officials strongly urge that seat belts be worn at all times. With small infants, many states now require that infant seats be used, such seats being of a type which meet the required safety regulations.
However, for children beyond the infant stage, and yet too small to use the seat belt arrangement of the car satisfactorily, there is a need for some additional type of seat. Children falling in this category usually weigh between about 30 and 60 pounds.
A number of vehicular safety seats have been proposed to accommodate children in this particular range. One such seat is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,819,232, issued June 25, 1974. This particular seat discloses a unitary seat having no movable parts which includes a shield in front of the child and which is held in place by a seat belt which passes over the child and a part of the seat in which he is placed. Such a seat does not allow for variation in the size of the child nor does it provide a seat which is easily used relative to the placement of the child in the seat. Further, this particular seat may present some problems relative to seat belts which are used in modern day automobiles.
Another such protective device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,424,497, issued Jan. 28, 1969, which shows, basically, a U-shaped shell having a shield thereon. A child is placed on a separate cushion and the shield is placed over the child and the seat belt is passed over the shield. Again, there is no accommodation for variation in the size of the child with the exception of the seat belt itself which is not very satisfactory and, further, the seat does not provide an easy entrance and exit from the seat for the child.
Another such seat is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,409,326, issued Nov. 5, 1968, which, in itself, provides a seat which is designed primarily to have vacuum assisted retaining means. The patent does show movable shields or arm rests with very complicated structure, and, which move sideways which again requires additional room on the vehicle seat.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a safety seat for a child generally between 30 and 60 pounds which is easily used in an automobile and which accommodates various size children due to the construction of the device and also provides a means for moving the associated shields into and out of place so as to provide easy access to the seat. Further, the seat easily accommodates to the use of any of the types of automobile seat belts now in use with such seat belts holding the seat firmly in place and, thus, the child therein.
These and other objects of the invention will become obvious from the following description when taken together with the drawings.